The 17th century Baptists baptized individuals upon a profession of faith. It was confessors baptism. They separated themselves from infant Baptists due to the nature of the church and the regulative principle of worship. This video is instructive, I pray you find it edifying.
The 17th century Baptists baptized individuals upon a profession of faith. It was confessors baptism. They separated themselves from infant Baptists due to the nature of the church and the regulative principle of worship. This video is instructive, I pray you find it edifying.
There was a lot of confusion as to what Baptists believed. It was assumed Baptists were synonymous with the fanatical Anabaptists responsible for the Munster Rebellion. Other "baptists" or those who believed in confessor baptism such as Anglican John Tombs didn't have that problem, he was identified as an "antipaedobaptist" or "against infant baptism" and recognized as orthodox in all other respect. This is a key reason way the First (1644) and the Second (1689) London Baptist Confessions were written, to show the rest of the church they were not Anabaptists.
Due to the differing ideas about the nature of the church the Presbyterians tried to establish one brand of Christianity within the English realm. They were ordered to do so by the English Parliament in 1643 so any anti-government based churches like the Anabaptists were to be forced out of the realm.
What happened wasn't right but we shouldn't be too anachronistic and read our current religious freedom into that time period.
